


November 2018 FFXIV Writing Challenge

by MEL_155_A



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-19 09:06:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16531562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MEL_155_A/pseuds/MEL_155_A
Summary: Using this to collect all of my submissions to the November 2018 30 day "Prompt a day" FFXIV fandom writing challengehttps://sea-wolf-coast-to-coast.tumblr.com/post/179422010106/ffxivwrite2018-ffxiv-30-day-writing-challenge





	1. Prompt #1: Submerged | Drowning would be easier

**Author's Note:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179688794253/prompt-1-submerged-drowning-would-be-easier

It happened every night, the whelming wave of darkness that pulled her under. The starting point was always different, but the end point was always the same: her keening screams as she held the small Hyur woman’s shattered form in her arms, the arrow tip digging into her as she pulled her (no not ‘her’ not any more just the cooling memorial of her) head into her lap. Sitting there beneath the crushing darkness sobbing, until she woke up to the same endless nightmare.


	2. Prompt #2: Silenced | Thought he would never shut up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179698796343/prompt-2-silenced-thought-he-would-never-shut

“The kobolds are a scourge, and we need to take our land back NOW!” The last of the muscular’s Rogedyn words were almost drowned out by the screeching, angry cheers of the crowd arranged in a semi-circle around his makeshift podium. The incoherent rage was so palpable that even from her patio perch almost a hundred yalms away Mari could feel it wash over her, leaving her feeling sticky and uncomfortable. Pushing off the railing she was leaning against, she walked back into the cool interior of the room, careful to step around the thickening puddle of blood coming from the former occupant. As she made sure that the various half written death threats against the Rogedyn in the square (written for not being extreme enough in his beliefs amazingly) were easily found, Mari shook her head in disbelief over the fact that she hadn’t had to plant them. She wasn’t even sure why she was being paid to do this, it seemed like the problem would of sorted itself out eventually anyways.

Sighing and grabbing her massive bow from it’s place across the small apartment, Mari finished stringing it and picked up an arrow as long as her arm. Notching the arrow and lining herself up with the window from the back of the room she began to draw the arrow back. Warmth flowed down her arms, built in spells increasing her strength, until the black feather fletching tickled her cheek. Exhaling slowly, she let the arrow go, mentally tracing it’s arc out and over the crowd until landed with a meaty thunk through the hateful demagogue’s throat. The roaring of the crowd stopped with a gasp, the ensuring silence lasting for a horrified second before being shattered by screams.

By then however, Mari had already broken down her bow, putting it’s strings and attachable components into a satchel, gripping the bow shaft in her hand. Slipping out of the apartment and locking it, she hurried up the stairs to the floor above her, knocking on the door closest on the right. A young Elezen man opened up the door immediately and stepped aside to let her in, closing the door behind her swiftly and smoothly. Handing over the pouch with her bow components and the bow shaft, Mari nodded at him as he handed back a wallet of gil. Putting the wallet away in a pocket, she strode over to the open window facing the alley behind the apartment building, carefully stepping out and letting herself drop down to grip the ledge before clambering the rest of the way down the rough stone wall to the street below. Slipping out of the alley into the mass of people fleeing the pre-maturely ended rally, Mari finally allowed herself a well earned smirk.


	3. Prompt #3: Adytum | You can carry sanctuary with you, if you try

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179755795518/prompt-3-adytum-you-can-carry-sanctuary-with

She didn’t care about the rituals anymore. If The Fury actually cared about the endless ceremonies, the pomp and circumstance of The Church, she wouldn’t let her priests be manipulative, abusive, blood soaked monsters. She still believed, still silently asked for The Fury’s protection, but in her own way, on her own schedule.

But…her parents had cared. Her parents had cared a lot, and she remembered the warmth of her family and their neighbors crowded into their small shrine in the Brume, doing all the appropriate motions, saying all the correct words. So, today. The day a group of Temple Knights burst through the door, smashed her mother and father to the ground, declared them heretics, and informed them of their already scheduled execution…today, she does the rituals. She sets an alter, lights the candles, does the motions, says the words, and asks that her parents be embraced by Her, for fighting until the very end, even against Her supposed enforcers.

Once she is finished, she doesn’t care about the rituals anymore.


	4. Prompt #4: Saving time | Sometimes you have to improvise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179795079483/prompt-4-saving-time-sometimes-you-have-to

Mari idly leaned against the crates she was using as cover, staring around the edge of one at the warehouse sitting on the dock opposite her. A large number of people were moving around the building’s perimeters, some of them moving crates off of a boat and stacking them near an entrance, some of them pretending to help work, and some of them not even pretending to not be on patrol. The ones on patrol carried torches or had small balls of magical light following them, utterly ruining their night vision. Mari started tapping her fingers rhythmically against a crate, having counted the number of people guarding the warehouse approximately a Thal damned number of times, when a blob of shadow seemingly shifted from off to her left right next to her.

“Yeahnaw, no way in. They got boys guarding every single possible entrance, even a couple up on the roof.” the blob of shadow whispered to her. “Why do you say that?” Mari replied, her voice flat with boredom. The blob of shadow slowly coalesced into a young Elezen man, frowning at the lack of reaction his sudden appearance had caused, “Whatcha mean? You can see as well as I can that there is people crawling all over.”

Pushing away from the edge of the crate to frown at her compatriot, Mari pinched the bridge of her nose as she replied, “No, the "yeahnaw” thing. It literally means nothing. Yeah means yes, naw means no, yesno isn’t a thing, it literally means positive and negative together, it is a null statement.“

The young Elezen man just stared at her in confusion before shrugging, "I dunno, everyone but you seems to get what I mean when I say it.” Leaning her forehead against the crate in front of her, Mari slowly counted to ten before letting out a deep breath and looking back at her companion, “Okay so…the building is locked down. So, we need some kind of distraction so that we can get in and pull the hostage out.”

Shaking his head in reply, the Elezen shrugged again, “No dice. They got enough coverage that you won’t be able to pull away enough people to get in and out without someone noticing you, and we aren’t going to survive fighting our way out if we have to defend a beaten to shit Hyur as we do it. We will just have to come back tomorrow and try our luck again.” Crossing her arms, Mari shook her head emphatically back, “Yeah, that is a hard no Nix. The payment gets slashed down to a quarter if we don’t get them out tonight, whatever this person knows, Eifarael is real worried about them puking it up along with the blood and teeth. We get them out tonight or we don’t do this at all, I am not risking my limbs for barely enough to get food for the week.”

Snorting in amusement, Nix sat down against the crates, “Firstly, we are dead if we try to bust our way in, so good luck spending all that gil from your beloved Fury’s embrace-” Mari immediately cut him off with a snarl, “Fuck off, the Fury is just a tool bastards use to make good little Ishgardians fall in line.”

“Yeah, whatever, I have seen you praying to her, you can’t fool me.” Nix continued with a growing smirk, “SECondly, you did the yes no thing. So, who is saying meaningless shit now.”

Face growing dark with stubborn anger, Mari returned to her post peering around the crate, “What is in those barrels they are stacking up against that wall there?” Sitting up, Nix peered around the other side of the crate before humming a bit, “Not exactly sure what’s in all of them, most of them seemed like ale, but the ones they are putting on top definitely had gunpowder.”

Raising an eyebrow, Mari leaned back into the darkness and started digging around in her kit, pulling out a set of rags, a small vial, and a set of metal and flint. At the sound of the liquid pouring, Nix turned around to look at Mari in confusion, “What in Thal’s dick are you doi-” he got out before being interrupted by the sharp sound of metal on stone, “No. Nonono, what are you doing?!” he whispered with an increasing fear and urgency. The torch fuel soaked rags wrapped around the arrow Mari was holding suddenly burst into flame, causing ominous shadows to flicker across her as a wide smile crossed her face. “I’m making us a shortcut.” is all she said before she drew the arrow back, stepped out of cover and shot it at the barrels in one smooth motion.


	5. Prompt #5: Show of hands | Never corner the desperate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179816755268/prompt-5-show-of-hands-never-corner-the

Even though her legs felt like someone had poured molten lead into them, the jeering of the older boys chasing her kept her legs pumping as hard as she could. Rounding a tight, blind corner she rushed down the alley she suddenly found herself in, taking the turn she found at the end of it, skidding to a stop in front of a dead end wall. The smooth stone towering above her, she leaned against the wall with one hand, trying to catch her breath even as panic started setting in.

Biting her lower lip and to try and stop the trembling in it, Mari realized that she had to do something, that she wouldn't be able to just take the hits and limp home this time. The ring leader had been escalating his threats recently; cornering her in the orphanage and forcing her to listen to his ever more extreme plans for violence once he got the chance. Her body shaking like a leaf, she reached under her shirt, and pulled the small kitchen knife she had hidden in her belt. She would use it this time, scare them away, make them think twice and then she would just make sure to not get caught like this again.

So caught up in the terror and fascination the knife blade filled her mind with, she failed to notice that the jeering hadn't faded away, but instead, stopped. She was ripped back into reality by a hand gripping her hair and wrenching her head back painfully, a horrible mocking laughter ringing in the confines of the alcove. Acting purely on instinct born of endless chained up rage she spun around, a chunk of her hair coming out in her tormentor's hand, and pushed herself forward as hard as she could, driving the knife into the gut of the boy standing behind her. 

The other boys from the gang of bullys stood in a rough semi circle at the entrance of the alcove, some staring at their bloody, fallen leader, some at Mari and her blood soaked hands. Spitting on the ground and drawing in a deep, full breath, Mari tightened her grip on the knife and screamed, "Alright! Raise your hands, who IS NEXT?!"


	6. Prompt #6: Speak Up | "I was just following orders" is never an excuse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179863738403/prompt-6-speak-up-i-was-just-following

She is in her room just off from the kitchen when it happens. The sharp crunch of their thin wooden front door shattering off it's hinges is met by her mother's piercing scream before she can even react. It is her father's bellowing yell followed by the thick thud of a metal gauntlet impacting a jaw that drives her down into her hands and knees, scrambling underneath the bed frame. 

The sounds of fighting continued for a few more brief moments, and then a thick silence settled in, broken only by the sound of heavy footsteps and jangling chain mail. Suddenly a coarse voice cut through the cold morning air, "Albax and Olbene Haustefort, you are guilty of providing aid and comfort to the brood of Nidhogg and heresy of the highest order. You are to be executed before the sun sets. You will now be allowed to plead for the forgiveness of Halone."

There was another moment of rustling and then the screams and pleading of her parents was all she could hear, the both of them saying over and over that they had no idea what was going on. Eventually the coarse voice barked a few orders and the begging became muffled, then distant, and then Mari was alone, nothing but the creeping chill of the Brume surrounding her. Mari stayed under the bed as minutes or maybe hours ticked by, her entire body quaking, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood to stop herself from crying. 

Eventually Mari slowly crawled out, and looked around at the destroyed remnants of her home unable to fully parse what she had heard. Her parents, heretics? They were incredibly devout, they never missed a prayer or tithe. They had raised her to do same, to praise The Fury and to ask Her for Her blessing in overcoming all challenges set before her. Right. Fight, overcome. Rooting around in the small chest that held what little she owned, she pulled the bow and arrows she had gotten from the Brume Watch training group along with a few small trinkets. She would go to the Temple Knights and tell them of their mistake, offer to join them in exchange for her parents freedom, fight a contest of arms, whatever it took to fre- 

"Oh fucking balls." Squeaking in fright, Mari whipped around and saw a Temple Knight standing in the door way to her room. "My-my my parents aren't heretics!" she managed to stammer out, all the fire she had had just a moment ago blowing immediately. The knight reached up, took off her helmet and rubbed a hand over a scarred, rough hewn face, "Yeah. Yeah, no shit they aren't heretics." she replied with a heavy sigh.

Mari opened her mouth in confusion but before she could say anything, the knight held up a hand silencing her. "Listen, kid. Everyone knows your parents aren't heretics. I have no idea how a pair of random Brumies pissed off the head of a Noble House, but they did and now he will do anything to see them dead." Reaching into a pouch at her side, she pulled out a number of odd looking tokens and wooden symbols, "I'm here to plant a bunch of nonsense "heretical materials" so that the Inquisitors can find the evidence later. The fact that they were sentenced to death before any evidence was found won't be questioned by anyone." she continued as she strode over to Mari's bed and sat heavily down onto it, staring down at the floor.

A long, tense minute passed where Mari just stood there awkwardly, terrified of making any kind of sound. Finally, she was able to choke out the question pounding a drum beat in her mind, "Wha-what are you going to do with me then?" Looking up like she had just remembered Mari was in the room, the knight stared blankly at her, looking through her for a long, heavy second before replying, "Kid...make me promise. Promise me that if you ever see something obviously wrong happening you will do something."

Her thoughts now lost in a maelstrom of confusion, Mari awkwardly nodded, "Um, I promise. I guess." Letting out another sigh and shaking her head, the knight stood up and looked down at Mari, "Will have to do for now."

Grabbing Mari's arm, she started gently pulling her through the wreckage of Mari's life, "Come on kid, we have someone you need to meet."


	7. Prompt #7: Serendipitous | Always in the last place you look

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179899575313/prompt-7-serendipitous-always-in-the-last

Mari was on her sixth hour of sitting still and silent on the roof top, rain pouring off the hood of her cloak like a wedge in a river. The linkpearl in her ear buzzed, and turning her head ever so slightly to the side, it connected to her compatriot, allowing Nix's languid voice to flow out, "Yeahnaw, I went through this place with a fine toothed comb. He packed up and left probably before we even got the contract."

Sighing with frustration, Mari begins slowly stretching stiff muscles in order to begin the process of rising from her watch point before replying "No sign of him here either, where ever this fucker is pretty sure only the Twelve can find him now." 

"Aw, come on, I know it's been a week but there is a reason this job pays well. We will catch a whiff of 'em eventually." Nix said easily, the sound of others chattering rising in the background. "Says the little fucker who has been inside all week. I have been out in this endless piss bucket of a storm the entire time, and even I have my limits." Mari growled back as she clambered down the wall of the abandoned building she had posted herself on.

Nix's voice turned pleading as the voices faded away to be replaced by soft patter of the rain, "Come on Frosty, give it one more day before we call it in to the client. Just one more day for me?" Mari snorted contemptuously, "If you actually wanted my help, you wouldn't of called me by a nickname you know I hate, so how about this? You do whatever you want and call me when you are done." 

Reaching up and flicking the linkpearl off angrily, Mari stuck her hands in her pockets and proceeded to stride through the rain towards the docks and the shitty bars that could be found there. Muttering insults and hurtful impressions of Nix under her breath as she went, she almost ignored the flicker of recognition that went off when she walked by a drunk passed out in the alley behind her preferred dive bar. Something made her stop in her tracks however, and she slowly backed up to stare at the prone form on the cobbles in front of her.

Reaching up and turning her linkpearl back on, Nix's mocking tone immediately rushed out of it, "I knew you couldn't stay aw-". "Shut the fuck up and tell me the description again." Mari interrupted, a threatening growl in her voice. Recognizing the complete lack of the patience Mari was displaying, Nix immediately started rattling off a memorized description list.

"Alright, he is a pale skinned bruiser of a Roe, 6'8" and muscley, has short black hair, a tattoo on his right arm of a double headed axe, tattoo on his left of a decapitated sea serpent with a cannon underneath, a big old scar crossing his face, and almost none of that matters because he could pretty easily be under a glamour." Nix finished with a deep breath as a flourish.

Mari stood there silently in the rain during Nix's entire speech, watching as the massive sickly white bulk in front of her shifted in his in sleep, rolling over so that the rain began slipping through the short spikes of black hair over the tattoo of an axe on his arm rather then the tattoos of a headless snake and a cannon on his other arm. The scar on his face twisted as he muttered something in his sleep, passed out so thoroughly that he didn't even twitch when Mari cleared her throat and very carefully replied, "He is passed out in the alley behind the Wasp Sting." 

"What?! How do you know that?" Nix near shouted into her ear incredulously. "Because I am in the alley behind the Wasp Sting. Staring at him." Mari replied precisely. "Okay, okay. Just wait for me and I will be there soon. We will drag him in together." Nix rushed out, the sound of him sprinting echoing into her ears. "How much do we get paid if he is dead?" Mari said almost to herself, a velvet undercurrent of anger slipping into her voice. "Nothing Mari, nothing! We won't get paid at all! I know you are pissed right now and the only way you can express your fucking emotions is FUCKING VIOLENCE but don't! DON'T! NOTHING! WE GET NOTHING!" Nix hissed through ragged breaths.

Reaching under her cloak and tapping her fingers along the grip of her long dagger, she sighed and stayed silent for a few moments, listening to the sound of Nix sprinting over the link pearl. "Yeah...sorry. It's fuckin' worth it." she  replied simply, a vicious grin spreading across her face.


	8. Prompt #8 Crag | No where is high enough to hide from yourself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://mel-155-a.tumblr.com/post/179932855453/prompt-8-crag-no-where-is-high-enough-to-hide

Mari finished packing away the heavy furs she normally wore these days and began picking up the laid out climbing gear in front of her. Securing various tools and ropes to the belt around her knee length leather pants, she hoisted the pack with her clothes and supplies up onto her back, tightening straps so that they bit securely into the bare skin of her shoulders. Making sure the cloth wrapped around her chest wouldn't rub between the pack and her skin, she reached up and pulled herself onto the first ledge, jabbing spikes into the rocks to create more grips from there.

Settling into a rhythm, Mari began a slow, steady upward journey, sweat beginning to prickle across her arms and back as she began breaking through the cool canopy of the Chocobo Forest. Relaxing into the familiar physical activity, she felt her mind begin to wander. Memories of Nix teaching her how to climb the rough stone walls surrounding them when they were both kids, the two of them using that as their escape from the orphanage, flashed pleasantly by. 

What those reminded her of were increasingly less happy however, images of Rowena joining them in excursions, the three of them growing closer as a group, growing up, Mari joking that Rowena should get a different apartment, she knew how dangerous windows could be Mari sitting across from her window and drawing an arrow back precisely and...

By the end of that thought she was in a near panic, and realised she had been sprinting up the crag, jabbing in grips and pulling herself up in a frenzy. Pausing where she was, she started gulping down air, ignoring the burning in her arms and legs. The moment seemed to freeze and crystallize, her holding onto the side of a sheer wall, mind full of regret and vitriol, leaving her there with nothing but aching muscles and self hatred for an eternity. The burning sun eventually thawed through her though, and she looked upward to see the cliff edge only a few yalms away.

Resolutely, she finished her journey pulling herself up and over the edge, sweat drenching her at this point. Dropping her pack to the ground, she pulled two containers of water out, dumping one over her head while sucking down the other. Walking away from the edge, she looked around at the isolation she found herself in, and sat down heavily. Sitting there, alone, she finally let herself break down and sob.


End file.
